Right at the checkout counter, before a customer even walks out of a store, Blnk is quietly doing something most Egyptian banks have never bothered to do: lending to people who have never borrowed before. The Cairo-based fintech has just raised $37.1 million in combined equity and debt financing to push that mission further.
The raise breaks down into a $12.5 million Series A equity round led by Algebra Ventures, with SANAD Fund for MSME, Endeavor Catalyst, and Emirates International Investment Company also participating. On top of that, Blnk pulled in $24.6 million in local currency debt facilities from the National Bank of Egypt, Suez Canal Bank, and Bank Al Baraka Egypt. The company says the fresh capital will go toward expanding its lending products, strengthening its technology, and exploring new markets.
Founded in 2021 by Amr Sultan and Tarek Elsheikh, Blnk works through a network of more than 3,000 merchants across Egypt, letting shoppers finance everything from electronics and furniture to automotive services, with repayment plans running from 6 to 36 months. No formal banking relationship, no proof of income, no credit history required. That last point is the whole idea. As of June 2025, roughly 16.7 million Egyptian adults remain locked out of the formal credit system entirely.
Sultan told TechCabal that around 75 percent of Blnk's clients had never borrowed formally before the company came along. That puts Blnk in a different lane from Egypt's better-known buy-now-pay-later players like valU, Shahry, and Souhoola, which largely serve consumers who already have some foothold in formal finance. Egypt's consumer finance sector hit EGP 61.3 billion ($1.2 billion) in 2024, a nearly 30 percent jump from the year before, according to the Financial Regulatory Authority. The market is clearly growing fast, and Blnk is betting the biggest prize still belongs to the people nobody else is chasing.
Originally published by TechCabal.